The cook county sheriff Tom Dart along with other officers has been sued by a prisoner, Kenneth Simmons Mays. He has alleged in his suit that the internal environment of the jail is quite vulnerable and he was stabbed by another prisoner in the mouth. He alleged that the other prisoner used a shank for the purpose and no guard interfered to save him from the attack. He also complained the miserable medical facilities to prisoners. “I’m fearful of my life,” Mays writes. “I’m stressed and depress.” He has claimed $2.6 million as damages.

Tom Dart is facing 270 law suits this year. Previous year, the number was 250. Due to this continuing embarrassment, Tom Dart invited the Discovery Channel to assess the plight of the jail with their own eyes and allowed the cameras for coverage to run it on the public channel.

Tom Dart is of the view that the messy, congested and untidy living conditions coupled with the manipulation of hardened criminals result in the mental distress and sickness of the prisoners.

The jail has the “human capacity” of 4000 prisoners but it is stuffed with 10,000 inmates. The jail is filled with murderers and gangsters who are mentally sick and jeopardize the lives of other prisoners. Media has viewing the invitation of Dart as tact to circumvent public pressure mounting on him. That’s why he has allowed the discovery channel to “diverge” the issue in to some other direction as he knows that there will be less chances of proper management of the incoming prisoners whose number is mounting day by day.

Discovery Channel will run the movie in three parts. First part of “Brains and Brawn” will go on-air today at 8 p.m.

Cook County Jail